The project is a response to the rapidly changing labour market in all our countries and the need for schools to better equip pupils for future jobs and careers. It aims to make links with workplaces that specialize in technology and digital media, bringing entrepreneurs from those industries into school and taking pupils to their workplaces. It builds on a highly successful Comenius project entitled Europe’s Got Talent and involves 4 of the original Comenius participant schools (UK, Croatia, Poland and Turkey - those who are the most interested in improving technological skills in their schools). For both staff and pupils, the emphasis will be on the 3Cs – communication, collaboration and creativity. The aim is to get each school to make their own production company, specializing in digital media. There will be five different outcomes linked to existing curriculum areas such as History, Literacy and Social Sciences/PSHE (an TV advertisement, a documentary or longer film, an animation, a podcast and a final product of the individual school’s choice, for example a computer game). Pupils will be assessed while making these products using a new framework being developed for PISA to support the teaching and learning of creativity. Their communication skills will also be assessed using an assessment framework for oracy. Pupils will showcase their work during the different mobilities, explaining how they produced their product. Staff will share practice around the best software and pedagogy. The final work will be disseminated on a project website. The results envisaged will be an improvement in the technological competences and skills of both pupils and staff. A second benefit anticipated will be a greater awareness in both students and staff of the needs and demands of the workplace. It is intended that the longer term impact of this will be that schools are improving the employability of students and reinforcing links and synergies between their sector and the world of work.
We devised and set up this project up as a response to the rapidly changing labour market in all our countries and the need to better equip pupils for future jobs and careers. All of our schools serve communities with significant deprivation: raising aspirations was a key objective of the project. Particular attention was paid in each school to making sure that disadvantaged students were engaging fully in the project and were given priority when selecting pupils for mobilities. The project involved making links with workplaces that specialise in technology and digital media, bringing entrepreneurs from those industries into school and taking pupils to their workplaces. It built on a highly successful Comenius project entitled Europe’s Got Talent and involved 4 of the original Comenius participant schools (UK, Croatia, Poland and Turkey - those who were the most interested in improving technological skills in their schools). For both staff and pupils, the emphasis was on the 3Cs – communication, collaboration and creativity. Each school produced a range of different digital products linked to existing curriculum areas such as History, Geography, Literacy and Social Sciences/PSHE (a TV advertisement, a short film, an animation and a podcast). A variety of different frameworks were trialled during the project to assess pupils’ creativity, communication and collaboration skills. Pupils showcased their work during the different mobilities, explaining how they produced their product. Staff shared best practice around software and pedagogy. The final work has been disseminated on the project website. The project has led to an improvement in the technological competences and skills of both pupils and staff. It has also given all our school communities (students, staff and parents) a greater awareness of local employment opportunities as well as the skills needed to work in the creative and technological sectors. We hope that through this project we have improved the employability of our students and reinforced links and synergies between our sector and the world of work.